Phosphatidylglycerolphosphate (PGP) synthase and PGP phosphatase catalyze the sequential synthesis of phosphatidylglycerol from cytidine-5'-diphosphate 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycerol (CDP-DG) and glycerol-3-phosphate. PGP synthase and PGP phosphatase activities were characterized in rat heart mitochondrial fractions, and the effect of fatty acids on the activity of these enzymes was determined.

Unlike many phospholipid biosynthetic enzymes including PGP synthase, which catalyzes the initial step in CL biosynthesis, CL synthase was not repressed in cells grown in the presence of the phospholipid precursor inositol.

In preparations of cytoplasmic membrane (CM) enriched in these activities, apparent Km values of PGP synthase were 90 microM for sn-glycerol-3-phosphate and 60 microM for CDP-diacylglycerol; the apparent Km of PS synthase for L-serine was near 165 microM.

Both PGP synthase and PGP phosphatase of B. licheniformis were associated with a membrane component of the cell as evidenced by sucrose gradient centrifugation, differential centrifugation, and solubilization by buffers containing detergent...